Dyson Racing had to retire from this weekend’s round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Laguna Seca after a fuel pressure problem proved to be terminal.
The #16 Thetford/RACER Mazda Lola driven by Chris Dyson and Guy Smith had made it through two and a half hours of the four hour race.
This event was the race debut of the new Advanced Engine Research (AER)-developed Mazda P90 engine, and up until the car’s retirement had shown a lot of promise. A strong performance in qualifying meant that Smith was able to slot the car into second on the grid in a session which saw just half a second cover the three fastest cars.
Andrew Saunders, engineering manager at AER said: “The P90 delivers more horsepower, more torque, better driveability and better fuel economy. It is a responsive engine with all the inherent benefits that direct injection gives you. In a GDI turbo engine, the fuel cuts you make are as instantaneous as the spark cuts which bring you on a more level playing field with normally aspirated engines.”
Driver Chris Dyson said: “The engine, hardware and electronics will go back to England, be put on the dyno test bed, and we will establish the root cause of today’s problem.”
He continued: “We are known for being independent and not running off-the-rack race cars. [We have always been] about pushing the envelope and never standing still. We made a big step forward this weekend in pace and will further that with more testing before [the next event at] Lime Rock.”
Meanwhile team principal Rob Dyson explained: “We have always prided ourselves on running equipment that other people do not have. There are plusses and minuses to that but we prefer to have control over our racing destiny and develop our own equipment.”
He continued: “Our engine and chassis combination is unique in the world. In a racing world that is going more and more down the restrictive path of spec racing, we prefer to give race fans the excitement of the latest technology.”
The next event in the ALMS, after the mid-year break for 24 Hours of Le Mans, will be at Dyson Racing’s home track of Lime Rock on the weekend of July 5-6.
